ONE MORE SEASON ?

Well it had to happen sooner or later. I had been putting off repairing the rust from my venerable old lawnmower for too long. Half way into mowing my back yard grass the metal deck of the mower which supports the engine fell in. The spinning blade began gouging up the grass and I had to stop with a half cut lawn.

This old mower and I go way back together. We sort of keep each other entertained with it trying to stop working and me trying to keep it running.

It seems that the wet grass inside the deck area had rusted a ring inside which finally fell through dropping the motor to the ground.

The red circle in the picture is the area that broke and collapsed.

This picture shows how the metal seperated.

One can only admire the lenghts this mower will go to to stop working. However it has underestimated my resolve to keep it working one more season.

After some pondering for a plan, as this is as we say here a goodin, epoxy came to mind.

I recall having a recycled RIGHT TURN ONLY sign that I keep around and cut pieces off of when I need scrap metal for a project.

The first job was to clamp the deck back somewhat into its original position.

Then using a electric drill with a wire brush remove the rust and paint from around the affected area.
I did this until I had a shiny metal surface.

I then cut a square piece from the right turn only sign. After cleaning the metal surfaces with Acetone to remove the dirt and grease it was time to mix some epoxy.

I coated the sign plate bottom and the mower deck with the liquid epoxy and clamped them together until I could drill holes and apply bolts through the plate and deck.
Tightening the bolts down really tight gave the project a mechanical fastener as well as allowing the plate to chemically adhere to the deck tightly as the epoxy sets up. I cut some fiberglass cloth wetted well with epoxy and used it to cover the side holes.

It is setting up now as I write this so the results will not be known until tomorrow. My wife thinks that I should just buy a new lawnmower but she just doesn't understand that this is personal between me and the mower. ---sanddune------------------------------------------------------------------------------------